Trump Reportedly Plans to 'Decertify' Iran Nuclear Deal

President Trump will announce next week that he will "decertify" the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

An administration source pushed back on the report to Fox News, saying that a decision on the agreement was "not fully baked."

During a briefing with senior military leaders Thursday, Trump said Iran had "not lived up to the spirit of the agreement" and added the U.S. "must put an end to Iran's continued aggression."

Trump has until Oct. 15 to tell Congress if he believes Iran is complying with the seven-nation pact.

"We're going to give [Trump] a couple of options of how to move forward to advance the important policy toward Iran," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.

An announcement of decertification by Trump would not scrap the deal on its own. If he does decertify the deal, Congress could reintroduce economic sanctions on Iran that were suspended under the agreement. If that happens, Iran has threatened to walk away from the arrangement and restart activities that could take it closer to nuclear weapons.

Trump and other U.S. officials, including Tillerson, have said Iran is violating the spirit of the agreement because of its testing of ballistic missiles, threats to U.S. allies in the Middle East, and support for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations and Syria's government.

The president has called the deal, which forced Iran to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for broad relief from international economic sanctions, one of the nation's "worst and most one-sided transactions" ever. But many of his top national security aides don't want to dismantle the deal, and America's European allies have lobbied the Trump administration heavily not to walk away from the agreement.

Under the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, Trump must determine that Iran is implementing the nuclear deal and hasn't committed a "material breach," or taken action that could advance its nuclear weapons program. The law also demands the president's verdict on a fourth question: whether suspending sanctions is "appropriate and proportionate," and if doing so is "vital to the national security interests of the United States."

On Tuesday, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iran "is not in material breach of the agreement." At the same hearing, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he believed the deal is still in the U.S. national security interest, but hinted that Trump may try to decertify without breaking the deal.

"You can talk about the conditions under one of those, and not walk away from the other," he said.

The US defense secretary, James Mattis, has backed the nuclear deal with Iran, saying it is in the interests of national security to maintain it, breaking with Donald Trump and potentially making it harder for the president to withdraw from the deal.

The timing and nature of Mattis’s remarks are particularly significant because Trump has threatened to withhold certification of the 2015 international agreement in a report to Congress due on 15 October . Under the relevant legislation, the administration has to certify whether Iran is in material breach of the agreement, or if the deal is not serving the national interest.

Mattis was asked at a hearing of the Senate armed services committee whether he believed it was currently in the US national security interest to remain in the agreement.

After a significant pause, the defense secretary replied: “Yes, senator, I do.”

At the same hearing, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Joseph Dunford agreed that Iran was abiding by the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he said had delayed Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. Last week, Dunford said the US should uphold the agreement, in the absence of a clear Iranian breach, or risk losing credibility when it came to signing future agreements.

Trump has repeatedly lambasted the JCPOA – one of the most important foreign policy legacies of his predecessor, Barack Obama – most recently at the UN general assembly last month.

“Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States and I don’t think you have heard the last of it, believe me,” he said, raising expectations that he would not endorse the agreeement.

Mattis is arguably the most powerful member of Trump’s cabinet and the president has been wary of contradicting him in public, something he has clearly no compunction about doing in the case of the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

Even if Mattis does not immediately sway Trump’s position on the JCPOA, his opinion is likely to carry weight with senators, who would be called on to decide the fate of the date, if the president did not certify it on 15 October.

Asked later in the committee hearing to explain his view on the deal, Mattis said. “The point I would make is if we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interests then clearly we should stay with it,” Mattis added. “I believe at this point in time absent indications to the contrary, it is something the president should consider staying with.”

During a briefing with senior military leaders Thursday, Trump said Iran had "not lived up to the spirit of the agreement"During a briefing with senior military leaders Thursday, Trump said Iran had "not lived up to the spirit of the agreement"

Translation: Iran has not violated the agreement, but Trump & Co. (contra the European allies) want war.

With all the international agreements Trump says he doesn't like or won't abide by, nobody is going to be willing to negotiate or re-negotiate anything with him. The self- professed "deal maker" will find that there are no deals to be had.

One thing we can say about Trump: Least Boring President Ever.

Donald Trump: 'What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening'

“People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular,” Trump wrote, or at least his ghostwriter did. “I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration – and a very effective form of promotion.”

With all the international agreements Trump says he doesn't like or won't abide by, nobody is going to be willing to negotiate or re-negotiate anything with him. The self- professed "deal maker" will find that there are no deals to be had.

And that will be an improvement.

Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

Robert Heinlein

Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

Groucho Marx

I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

Linus, from the Peanuts comic

You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

Alexis de Torqueville

Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

So it will throw the ball back in Congress' court from the executive side. Is this a bad thing?

Theye have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Theye have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Theye kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies

Theye have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

Theye plundered and destroyed the lives of our people.

Theye are at this time transporting Armies of Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

Theye have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Theye have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Theye kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies

Theye have combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

Theye plundered and destroyed the lives of our people.

Theye are at this time transporting Armies of Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

Berlin has released a statement jointly signed by the governments of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, urging the United States not to pull out of the 2015 JCPOA, often referred to as the ‘Iran deal’.

The news comes as many suspect that Donald Trump is preparing to defy the advice of his own state department, his allies in Germany, France, Britain and the EU as a whole, as well as the stated wishes of Russia and China and withdraw from the deal.

The statement was presented by Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Gabriel previously stated that the “world will change” if the US pulls out of the deal …

Today, Gabriel echoed the words of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in stating that if the US withdraws from the JCPOA, it would send the wrong message to North Korea, one which indicates that the US is not willing nor able to adhere to internationally reached agreements. …

With Russia and even South Korea leaving the door for economic cooperation with Pyongyang open, as an incentive to de-escalate tensions in East Asia, the United States is finding itself increasingly isolated in respect of its bellicose threats against both Tehran and Pyongyang. Such threats are rejected not only by Russia and China, but also by America’s EU allies. …

In respect of Iran, even among countries which are generally on the different side of major geo-political issues vis-a-vis the Iranian government, there is a concensus that Iran is in full compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement … The JCPOA was agreed upon after joint talks between Iran, China, Russia, US, UK, France, Germany and the EU as a whole. Currently, all of the aforementioned parties formally agree that Iran is in full compliance with the agreement. …

The only other world figure who has perpetually worked to aggressively undermine the JCPOA, is Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. …

"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

Major Israel Lobby organization AIPAC was leading the campaign against the Iran nuclear deal for years, and is now struggling to revise the appropriate confines of debate on the matter in the lead-up to President Trump decertifying the deal to try to kill it.
AIPAC insists that they take no specific position on whether or not Trump ought to decertify the deal. They are, however, heavily lobbying the administration and US Congress on a new round of sanctions which would amount to a breach of the deal. ... AIPAC appears to be determined to avoid any specific blame on that by structuring its hostility toward the deal as separate from the decertification issue.Yet decertification is the mechanism through which Trump believes he can most easily kill the deal, which is what AIPAC’s been insisting on from the start. In trying to be ambiguous on how the US should kill the deal, as they are still pushing for the deal to be killed, AIPAC is pushing the US down a reckless path while simultaneously preparing to dodge blame when it inevitably goes wrong. ...

"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

In October Mr Trump, who scorns the multinational agreement to freeze Iran’s nuclear weapons programme as “the worst deal ever”, disavowed but did not formally withdraw from the pact. That gave Congress 60 days to reintroduce sanctions that were suspended by the deal: a deadline expiring this week. Mr Trump also urged lawmakers to craft new measures to halt Iran’s ballistic-missile development and support for Middle Eastern terrorism. European allies noted Iran’s technical compliance with the deal and warned America it would walk out alone. The buck will now pass back to Mr Trump, whose next chance to kill the agreement falls in January.